Tue1
Arrive
Land 22:35. Yellow taxi to Karaköy — $41–54, ask for yellow.
Dinner Nothing booked
1—6 September · Karaköy
Karaköy
Notebook
Five days in Istanbul. The week, and what everything on the menu actually is.
The week
Base is the JW Marriott on Kemankeş Caddesi, opposite Galataport. Almost everything below is a walk.
Wed2
Bosphorus & Sütiş
Breakfast at Emirgan Sütiş on the water — bal kaymak, börek, menemen. $17.60 each. Then back down through Bebek and Arnavutköy.
Dinner Tershane — meze and grill, Golden Horn view $78
Thu3
Old city, then teeth
Blue Mosque 08:30 · Hagia Sophia 09:30 (€25, book online) · Cistern 11:30. Ferry across by 13:15.
15:00 — whitening, Suadiye.
Dinner Odessa — grilled fish, white-diet safe $60
Fri4
Nişantaşı
Jas 11:30 at the clinic. Cafés on Atiye Sokak and Teşvikiye — not Abdi İpekçi itself. Lunch at Foxy or Tatbak.
Dinner Asmalı Cavit — the meyhane night $80
Sat5
Hammam & bazaars
Grand Bazaar from 08:30 · Çemberlitaş Hamamı ($55–65, book ahead) · Spice Bazaar.
White diet clears 15:00.
Dinner Neolokal ★ — the one nice night, 19:30 $395
Sun6
Home
Leave the hotel 06:00 for BA721 at 08:15.
Two things shape this week
Whitening, Thursday 15:00. Forty-eight hours of white diet after it — no coffee, no Turkish tea, no red wine, nothing tomato, no berries or beetroot. Clears about 15:00 Saturday, so Neolokal that evening is fine, pairing included. Dishes marked ● below are the ones to skip.
The clinic is in Suadiye, on the Asian side — 45 to 60 minutes each way. That's why Thursday is a half-day in the old city, and why the bazaars moved to Saturday.
What the menu means
In the order it arrives: cold meze first, then hot starters, then the grill. All of it shared.
Meze
Cold, arrives first. Order five or six and share.
Muhammara●
Red pepper, walnut, pomegranate molasses. Sweet-smoky, not hot.
Ezme●
Chopped tomato, onion, chilli, parsley. This is the spicy one.
Haydari
Thick strained yoghurt, garlic, dill.
Cacık
Yoghurt, cucumber, garlic, mint. Thinner — almost a cold soup.
Fava
Broad bean purée, set and sliced, dill and lemon.
Topik
Chickpea and potato dome filled with onion, currants, tahini. Armenian. The meyhane sleeper hit.
Lakerda
Salt-cured bonito. Firm and salty. Built for rakı.
Yaprak sarma
Vine leaves around rice, pine nuts, currants.
Çiğ köfte
Bulgur kneaded with pepper paste. No raw meat any more — it's vegetarian.
Ara sıcak
Hot starters. Second wave.
İçli köfte
Bulgur shell, spiced lamb and walnut inside, fried. A croquette, essentially.
Paçanga böreği
Pastırma and cheese rolled in pastry, fried.
Su böreği
Layered pastry baked with cheese and parsley. Soft, not flaky.
Sigara böreği
Thin cheese cigars, fried.
Midye dolma
Mussels stuffed with spiced rice. Lemon, then eat from the shell.
Kalamar tava
Fried squid with tarator — garlic and walnut sauce.
Karides güveç●
Prawns baked in a clay pot with tomato, pepper, cheese.
Arnavut ciğeri
Albanian liver — diced, fried, raw onion and sumac.
Yaprak ciğer
Liver sliced leaf-thin and flashed in the pan. The Tershane one.
Kokoreç
Seasoned lamb intestine, grilled and chopped into bread. Better than it sounds.
Kebap
They are not interchangeable.
Adana kebap
Hand-minced lamb on a flat skewer. Chilli-hot. Named for the city.
Urfa kebap
Same shape, no chilli. Adana's mild twin.
Beyti●
Minced lamb rolled in lavash, sliced into rounds, tomato sauce and yoghurt.
Ali nazik●
Grilled lamb over smoked aubergine and garlic yoghurt.
İskender●
Döner over bread, tomato butter poured at the table, yoghurt alongside.
Kuzu pirzola
Lamb chops, plainly grilled. The safe order anywhere.
Cağ kebap
Erzurum style — stacked horizontally, carved onto a skewer.
Lahmacun
Very thin flatbread with minced lamb. Lemon, roll it, eat by hand.
Pide
Boat-shaped bread with cheese, egg or meat. Not pizza.
Mains
Lokanta food — the everyday cooking.
Hünkar beğendi●
Lamb stew on smoked aubergine béchamel. “The sultan liked it.”
Kuru fasulye●
White bean stew. The Fasuli dish — have it with rice and pickles.
Mıhlama
Black Sea cornmeal melted with butter and stringy cheese.
Menemen●
Eggs scrambled loose with tomato and green pepper, sometimes sucuk.
Testi kebabı●
Slow-cooked in a sealed clay pot, broken open at the table.
Döner
Stacked meat carved off the vertical spit.
Dürüm
The same, wrapped in flatbread. Lunch.
Tatlı
Sweet.
Baklava
Order fıstıklı — pistachio. Sold by weight.
Şöbiyet
Baklava pastry with clotted cream folded in. Richer.
Künefe
Shredded pastry over melting cheese, syrup, hot. Order it early — it takes time.
Fırın sütlaç
Rice pudding with a scorched top. The Sütiş one.
Kazandibi
Milk pudding deliberately burnt on the base, then rolled.
Tavukgöğsü
Milk pudding made with shredded chicken breast. You cannot taste it. Try it.
Bal kaymak
Honey and buffalo clotted cream on bread. The Sütiş signature.
Katmer
Flaky pastry, pistachio and cream, served warm.
Simit
Sesame ring bread. Breakfast, or from any cart.
İçecek
Drink.
Rakı
Aniseed spirit. Add water and it clouds — “lion's milk”. Sipped over hours with meze, never shot.
Ayran
Salted yoghurt. The thing to drink with kebab.
Çay●
Tea, in tulip glasses, endlessly, unasked.
Şalgam●
Fermented turnip juice. Purple, sour, traditional with Adana.
Salep
Hot orchid-root milk with cinnamon.